Rubik’s Cube is No Match for This Fast-Solving Robot

In November, the quickest person pushed the Rubik’s Cube world record under five seconds. Fourteen-year-old Lucas Etter solved a 3×3 Rubik’s Cube in 4.904 seconds.

A quick glance at the World Cube Association record page shows the time to solve a 3×3 Cube dropping quickly over the past 7-8 years. In 2007, the fastest time stood at over 10 seconds.

Etter’s time is impressive, but it’s no match for a robot. Not only are they taking our jobs, but the bastards are taking our Rubik’s Cube records too.

This contraption was created by Jay Flatland and Paul Rose. It’s not as complicated as it might look. A few webcams, stepper motors and a PC application help the robot turn the cube. The four webcams scan the Rubik’s Cube while the application begins analyzing using the Kociemba solving algorithm. It’s a popular algorithm to figure out which moves are needed to solve the cube quickly.

Flatland and Rose want to get their record officially recognized. Don’t worry Etter, there are separate records for robots. The current record holder for fastest time to solve a Rubik’s cube is 2.39 seconds by a robot built by Zackary Gromko. His robot also used cameras, arms and stepper motors to quickly manipulate the 3×3 cube.